Suvarna Raupya Siddhi Shastra

SR No.: 006907
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J C Sikdar
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 434
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 7 MB

Page 197

! During the Middle Ages an extensive system, in part secret, of symbols for chemical substances was developed. Toward the end of the eighteenth century chemists began to make use of initial letters of the names of elements and compounds, instead of the older symbols. Berzelius then systematized this procedure. 1
In the aforesaid Jaina MSS.-Suvarna-Raupya-Siddhi-Šāstra and others Alchemy is described in detail and some metals and plants are identified with some code names, 2 e. g. mercury, with 'dhamma' (Virtue), gold with3 'mangalam' (auspiciousness), the Nepalese copper with ukkittham* (best), Kantheri (a piece of opuntia) with ‘ahimsā'5, red Agasti glandiflora (or Sesbania glandiflora) with 'samjamo' (self-control), black kanaka (dhatura = thorny apple) with 'tavo', yellow Andropogon serratus (pili devadāli) with devā? = gods).
Besides, there are found other symbolic names for metals, e.g. pitam (gold), tāram (silver), svetam10 (silver), etc. on the basis of the their colour. ... The prominent feature of the Suvama-Raupya-Siddhi-Sastra and other Jaina works on Alchemy lay in the search after the elixir vitae and the powder of projection as their contents testify.11 Whereas fantastic and extravagant ideas in them, such as capacity of becoming invisible12, etc. impossible of realization, has subsided into something more practical and tangible.13 1. General Chemistry, Pauling, p 82. 2. Suvarnaraupyasiddhiśāsra, ch, I. gātha I. See its Vyākhyā. ch. II. 1. 3, Ibid, 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid.? 7, Ibid, 8. Ibid. 9, Ibid. 10. Ibid., ch. II. 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 14; III. 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 52, 58, 105, 107, 109; IV, 4, 3, 11,
14, 18, 25, V. 4, 5, 12, 17, 18, 19, 25, 29, 40. 11. Ibid., ch. 1. 10, 17, 21, 23, 47, 50, 52, 53x; II. 7, 10; III, 6, 9, 10, 12, 18, 19, 44,
54, 56, 69, 71, 85, 104; IV. 2, 4, 13, 16, 19; V. 5; IX. 33. 39; X. 5, 42; XI, 1.3,
15, 34 35, etc. 12. Ibid., ch. I. 27. 35; II, 15. III. 8, 11, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 15, 67,. IV. 5. 9 16,
17, V, 21, 34, VI. 11, 36. VII, 7, 11, 23, VIII. 5, 7, IX. 1. 12. 13, 16, 35, 42, 56,
57, X. 1, 5, 37, 38, XI, 19, 37. XII. 11, 13, 15, 16, 27, 28, XIII. 5, 14, etc, 13, SRSS., IX. 1. e. g. pache te parane agni dije...ghisyu khai to kaya amāra kare/
"SRSS, ch. IX. 1. "Paisa bhār guddha gorakh mardii... Savīroga jāi, dviguni khudhā hove 1", Ibid. ch, V, 41. "Bhiko athava te khaciho cürņakija